everywhere i travel, tiny life

i am so over flying. i don't know if i quite qualify for the "jet set" as i am not a holder of any magic pass that gives me early-boarding access. for those that do so qualify, i salute them. they deserve it. unless of course those platinum / titanium / strontium memberships can simply be had for cash. obviously, i have never bothered to check.

while i recover from my gencon flights, and prepare a more substantive entry, i'll provide for you another helpful travel tip:

when flying, you will often receive a plastic-sealed roll of bread and a single-serving pat of butter. the problem, of course, is that cold butter is nearly impossible to spread. spreading it on cold bread is all the worse. you will also receive a warm entree, often foil-sealed. so, while you start in on your salad, cut your roll in half and place it under your entree, face up. you can also place it on top, face down. however, there needs to be room for you to put your pat of butter on it as well. the foil serves as a hot-plate to warm them up. be sure to keep the fold of the butter package up or you will have a mess on your hands. also, your food is hotter than you think, so don't leave the butter on too long. by the time your salad is done, voila, warm bread and butter.

there ya go. don't say you never got anything for free.

transports, motorways and tramlines starting and then stopping, taking off and landing....

con season

what kept me from blogging earlier threatens to do the same soon. convention season is in full-swing, and for those of us who make our living in these strange fields--encompassing comics, cartoons, film, and the like--conventions are where we go to connect with fans and clients.

i'm a little late to talk much about san diego comic con, which happened in july. others have told the tale far better than i could. comic con is special because of the number of folk who dress up to attend. you'll see your usual anime cosplayers, but the meat of the matter lies in folk who dress up as movie or comic characters. often it's silly but in good fun, other times it works quite well. a certain gal dressed as slave leia managed to attract quite a lot of attention this year.

then there was this fella. i can say nothing more than the picture itself can adequately express:

one of the cooler parts of this year's comic con was meeting, albeit briefly, a fellow i went to college with and hadn't seen since i ditched school permanently. rhode montijo was a pretty talented dude back then and i had him in a few classes. over the years i've kept an eye on a few folk whom i remembered via my bookmark folder. rhode has become a standout simply because he was chiefly responsible for the excellent happy tree friends, which if you have never seen, and like cartoon violence, is right up your alley. i was pleasantly surprised to find out he was behind it because i enjoyed it before knowing he was behind it. a buddy of mine even bought a shirt, so i was seeing rhode's stuff the whole time. but his other projects are pretty rocking also, especially his comic. last two years i stopped by the happy tree friends booth trying to say hello, but since he's a big-time celebrity these days he'd only be there like one hour a day to sign autographs and gather up roses thrown at him by adoring fans, so i'd never managed it. so we ran into each other in a line. crazy. so, i'll keep this blog entry shorter--go check out rhode's stuff.